Finance

The U.S. economy added a mere 29,000 jobs in September, missing Wall Street expectations of 84,000 by a wide margin. Compounding the soft report, the national unemployment rate ticked up slightly to 4.2%, while the prior two months of employment figures underwent substantial downward revisions.

Bond yields experienced downward pressure as weak employment figures prompted market participants to scale back their expectations for near-term interest rate hikes. Yields dropped initially on the soft labor numbers, bringing relief to public markets after the 10-year Treasury yield recently tested multi-decade highs.

Technology and semiconductor equities provided vital support for the wider equity market, driving the Nasdaq to consecutive weekly gains. Sentiment was further bolstered by reports that a major chip designer syndicate is orchestrating $60 billion in AI hardware financing to support prominent artificial intelligence developers.